The Valley Song
by bakerswiife
Summary: "Her voice was quiet at first, but then began to grow louder and louder as she sang more verses to the song. It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful, and Peeta had quite the eye for beautiful things. This was by far one of the most wonderful things he'd ever heard or seen." The moment when Peeta realizes that he's fallen in love with Katniss Everdeen. One Shot.


His eyes were wandering around the class room as Mrs Lovell was reading a book to the small class.

Peeta didn't seem to care at all. He stared aimlessly out the window, glancing at the birds that flew past the tiny school. Being outside would be better than sitting in such a boring place like the classroom. He couldn't wait until he got home where he could find an escape. Instead, he was doing the last thing he wanted to do, sitting in a classroom being read a book that he'd heard countless times. It was the only decent children's book that had been published in District Twelve, and he was pretty sure that it was the only book the Teacher had ever read to them.

The story the teacher read had finally ended, the rest of the students in his class asked questions about the book but Peeta still payed no interest because like everyone, he'd heard it dozens of times before.

"Now class, who knows the valley song?" Mrs Lovell asked with a large grin in her high pitched sing-songy voice.

The truth was, everyone knew the valley song. It was from the book that they had just read, and almost all of Panem knew it. It would be quite silly if someone weren't to know the song, but no one raised their hand because they knew just what she meant when she asked.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girl with the two long brown braids and chekered red dress shoot her hand straight up into the air. He was completely astounded when he saw this. Katniss had usually been fairly quiet and only spoke if she had to. He'd noticed she didn't have many friends, and all he'd wanted was to get to know her. But he never could bring himseld to do such a thing in fear of being embarrassed by her, or being teased by his friends for liking a "Seam Slut", whatever that meant. The word slut was beyond his vocabulary and his father told him never to utter that word again when he'd asked him about it. With Katniss' stubborn attitude, she was sure to put him down anyway. To her he was just a pudgy little merchant boy who she despised for living better off than her. If only she knew that that wasn't really the case. Things were hard for everyone in District Twelve, maybe not as much for the Merchant kids, but no one was living in good conditions in twelve.

He watched as Katniss stood up from her desk and gingerly walked towards the front of the small classroom. She smoothed down her red dress and stood on the small wooden stool at the front of the class and began to sing the Valley Song. His father had pointed Katniss out to him that morning, but he didn't pay much attention to her until now.

Her voice was quiet at first, but then began to grow louder and louder as she sang more verses to the song. It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful, and Peeta had quite the eye for beautiful things. This was by far one of the most wonderful things he'd ever heard or seen. The birds that were chirping carelessly outside stopped suddenly and perched on the branch outside of the room to listen to the melodic tone of her voice.

He never would have expected her to do such a daring thing, but there she was, singing the song the best he'd ever heard it. Whenever he heard it before, he'd become annoyed because it was sung so commonly in their school, but it was never like this, it had never sounded so good.

She looked scared, her grey eyes looked nervous and worried but really there was nothing for her to worry about because everyone and everything around her fell silent to admire the beauty of her voice. That's when he realized he was falling for her. With every word she sang, he began to fall in love with her even more. He couldn't take his eyes off of her, he was in a trance almost.

She soon finished singing and then gave a weak smile an d quickly strided to her spot andsat back down in her little desk at the back of the room. The class clapped and Peeta made sure to clap the loudest because she really did deserve it. As she walked past him to the back of the room she gave him a quick glance making his heart speed up and pound even harder in his chest. Her face was as red as a tomato and he realized that that would probably be the first and last time he'd ever hear her sing.

She looked like she'd just regretted her decision, but she really shouldn't have because her voice was one of the greatest things he'd ever heard. He glanced over his shoulder at her again and their eyes connected instantly. "Oh no." He thought, "I've been caught."

He quickly glanced away and focused on his paper that sat on the wooden desk. He'd always been sociable with his friends and everyone seemed to love him, but when it came to Katniss he was shy as ever. He had noticed her before, the way her chocolate brown hair fell in her face and the way her grey eyes sparkled. Everything about her was so different, she was a breath of fresh air, not like the typical merchant girls that he hung around.

He didn't look back again simply because he was too afraid that she'd catch him staring again. Instead he sketched on the piece of loose leaf paper that lay on his desk. He started out with her face, added her two beautiful grey eyes and her braided hair and added a wide smile because he thought it made her look even more beautiful. It wasn't often when Katniss Everdeen smiled, but when she did, he noticed.

He admired the sketch on his desk, it wasn't entirely accurate but it still looked somewhat similar. He folded the piece of paper up into a small square and shoved it in his pocket making sure that no one would see. He then focused his eyes on the blackboard where wrote down notes for the students to copy. It would only be a few moments until the bell rang and that's when he decided that he'd make his move and talk to her for the first time.

_Ding, ding, ding. _

The familiar sound of the school bell rang and Peeta scurried to gather his worn out books and clumsily scurried out of the room after giving a curt nod and a wave. He grabbed his old jacket and ran outside of the school in anticipation to find Katniss.

He looked around the front of the school for her and then finally found the girl with the red dress and braided hair who stood alone outside the building. He fixed his unruly blond hair and gingerly walked towards her, trying to keep his cool.

"Hey Katniss I uh-" He uttered out but then was cut off when Gale Hawthorne, one of the older kids had budged in front of him and began talking to her. Katniss gave him a strange glare but then turned her attention towards Gale again.

Peeta gave a defeated sigh as he kicked a small stone on the ground and began walking, his head was facing the ground. Stupid Gale Hawthorne, He thought. He'd finally gotten up the courage to talk to her and of course, Gale had come in and ruined it for him.

His shaggy blonde hair fell across his face as he looked at the gravelly road below him. He'd be walking home alone today instead of with Katniss like he'd hoped to. He sat on the ground and pulled out his sketch book and began sketching angrily. He wasn't sure what he was drawing but it helped keep him calm. He frowned as he looked up again and watched her go home with Gale walking right beside her. She turned her head and glanced at him again giving him a sad smile. He only looked away and frowned again because his hopes of talking to Katniss Everdeen were now diminished.

**A/N: I just wanted to thank you all for reading! I'm really enjoying writing One-Shots and I hope I get the chance to write more in the future! I hope you enjoyed this short One-Shot, and make sure to leave a review to let me know what you thought! I'd wanted to write something like this for a long time and I finally got the courage to write it so I hope you all enjoyed it! For people who are reading Falling For You, I should have Chapter 11 up sometime this weekend! If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you check it out as well as my other one shot called We Remain! Thanks again, I love and appreciate you all.**


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